The Generative Internet

The generative capacity for unrelated and unaccredited audiences to build and distribute code and content through the Internet to its tens of millions of attached personal computers has ignited growth and innovation in information technology and has facilitated new creative endeavors. It has also given rise to regulatory and entrepreneurial backlashes. A further backlash among consumers is developing in response to security threats that exploit the openness of the Internet and of PCs to third-party contribution. A shift in consumer priorities from generativity to stability will compel undesirable responses from regulators and markets and, if unaddressed, could prove decisive in closing today's open computing environments. This Article explains why PC openness is as important as network openness, as well as why today's open network might give rise to unduly closed endpoints. It argues that the Internet is better conceptualized as a generative grid that includes both PCs and networks rather than as an open network indifferent to the configuration of its endpoints. Applying this framework, the Article explores ways--some of them bound to be unpopular among advocates of an open Internet represented by uncompromising end-to-end neutrality--in which the Internet can be made to satisfy genuine and pressing security concerns while retaining the most important generative aspects of today's networked technology

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

An analysis of community-led superfast broadband initiatives in the UK and the potential for resilience

Despite interest from policymakers and the telecommunications sector to deliver superfast broadband to the whole of the UK, rural areas remain underserved, decreasing their ability to benefit from broadband-enabled services. Public intervention, primarily structured as national subsidies, is active across the UK to respond to this rural market failure. Complementing such practices are local-level strategies framed as community-led broadband initiatives. Their inclusion within wider superfast broadband installation strategies has not yet been examined. This doctoral research examines two of these initiatives, their structure and impact on the community to develop an understanding of their potential as replicable rural broadband delivery mechanisms. I analyse both the process of installing superfast broadband technology from community-led perspective and the subsequent engagement with superfast broadband through a qualitative longitudinal approach. A conceptual framework of 'social resilience' is developed as a contemporary analytical tool for examining these individual and community processes. The findings reveal an inherent complexity to rural community-led broadband provision. Community-led broadband reflects a 'localism' development approach, and this process has strengthened local rural identity. Following the adoption of superfast broadband, rural users experienced a growth in digital knowledge and individual resilience. However, the initiatives themselves are often discussed as 'separate from', or incompatible with, the telecommunications industry, as well as sitting outside the scope of current government interventions. In doing so, barriers to external networking and extra-local partnerships are built, limiting the opportunities for community-led broadband networks to become a substantive part of rural broadband delivery across the UK. Throughout the thesis, an understanding of these various tensions, impacting the success, use and replicability of rural community-led broadband, is developed and community-led broadband is shown to be another example of uneven rural development. I conclude by making recommendations for future digital policy interventions in the UK

Coverage and Time-optimal Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are rapidly advancing with a variety of applications, such as area surveillance, environment mapping, and intelligent transportation. These applications require coverage and/or time-optimal motion planning, where the major challenges include uncertainties in the environment, motion constraints of vehicles, limited energy resources and potential failures. While dealing with these challenges in various capacities, this dissertation addresses three fundamental motion planning problems: (1) single-robot complete coverage in unknown environment, (2) multi-robot resilient and efficient coverage in unknown environment, and (3) time-optimal risk-aware motion planning for curvature-constrained vehicles. First, the ε* algorithm is developed for online coverage path planning in unknown environment using a single autonomous vehicle. It is computationally efficient, and can generate the desired back-and-forth path with less turns and overlappings. ε* prevents the local extrema problem, thus can guarantee complete coverage. Second, the CARE algorithm is developed which extends ε* for multi-robot resilient and efficient coverage in unknown environment. In case of failures, CARE guarantees complete coverage via dynamic task reallocations of other vehicles, hence provides resilience. Moreover, it reallocates idling vehicles to support others in their tasks, hence improves efficiency. Finally, the T* algorithm is developed to find the time-optimal risk-aware path for curvature-constrained vehicles. We present a novel risk function based on the concept of collision time, and integrate it with the time cost for optimization. The above-mentioned algorithms have been validated via simulations in complex scenarios and/or real experiments, and the results have shown clear advantages over existing popular approaches

Proceedings of the 2004 ONR Decision-Support Workshop Series: Interoperability

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached Dr. Phillip Abraham of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on these new capabilities such as the Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System (IMMACCS) and the Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) had already reached the field-testing and final product stages, respectively. Second, over the past two decades the US Navy and Marine Corps had been increasingly challenged by missions demanding the rapid deployment of forces into hostile or devastate dterritories with minimum or non-existent indigenous support capabilities. Under these conditions Marine Corps forces had to rely mostly, if not entirely, on sea-based support and sustainment operations. Particularly today, operational strategies such as Operational Maneuver From The Sea (OMFTS) and Sea To Objective Maneuver (STOM) are very much in need of intelligent, near real-time and adaptive decision-support tools to assist military commanders and their staff under conditions of rapid change and overwhelming data loads. In the light of these developments the Logistics Program Office of ONR considered it timely to provide an annual forum for the interchange of ideas, needs and concepts that would address the decision-support requirements and opportunities in combined Navy and Marine Corps sea-based warfare and humanitarian relief operations. The first ONR Workshop was held April 20-22, 1999 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Luis Obispo, California. It focused on advances in technology with particular emphasis on an emerging family of powerful computer-based tools, and concluded that the most able members of this family of tools appear to be computer-based agents that are capable of communicating within a virtual environment of the real world. From 2001 onward the venue of the Workshop moved from the West Coast to Washington, and in 2003 the sponsorship was taken over by ONR’s Littoral Combat/Power Projection (FNC) Program Office (Program Manager: Mr. Barry Blumenthal). Themes and keynote speakers of past Workshops have included: 1999: ‘Collaborative Decision Making Tools’ Vadm Jerry Tuttle (USN Ret.); LtGen Paul Van Riper (USMC Ret.);Radm Leland Kollmorgen (USN Ret.); and, Dr. Gary Klein (KleinAssociates) 2000: ‘The Human-Computer Partnership in Decision-Support’ Dr. Ronald DeMarco (Associate Technical Director, ONR); Radm CharlesMunns; Col Robert Schmidle; and, Col Ray Cole (USMC Ret.) 2001: ‘Continuing the Revolution in Military Affairs’ Mr. Andrew Marshall (Director, Office of Net Assessment, OSD); and,Radm Jay M. Cohen (Chief of Naval Research, ONR) 2002: ‘Transformation ... ’ Vadm Jerry Tuttle (USN Ret.); and, Steve Cooper (CIO, Office ofHomeland Security) 2003: ‘Developing the New Infostructure’ Richard P. Lee (Assistant Deputy Under Secretary, OSD); and, MichaelO’Neil (Boeing) 2004: ‘Interoperability’ MajGen Bradley M. Lott (USMC), Deputy Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command; Donald Diggs, Director, C2 Policy, OASD (NII